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Pont Notre-Dame. From frequent commerce and trading to a city road and an open-air museum.

28 August 2010 No comments Share/Save

Pont Notre-DameWe will continue speaking about Paris, to be exact about one of its most beautiful bridges which that crosses the Seine in Paris to city center – the Île de la Cité. Pont Notre-Dame – the bridge with a famous name and history will be the center of our attention today.

The Parisian bridge Pont Notre-Dame has been constructed in the beginning of the fifteenth century as an inhabited street (in general, it was peculiar to bridges of Paris) and connected aforementioned island with the right coast of the Seine a little above on the current from the well-known Pont au Change. So it has staid about a hundred years before it has been replaced by other construction, but the old bridge still remained.

That is remarkable that both bridges have continued to remain important for many Parisians who for business affairs moved from “the big” earth to the island, some had lived there.

The first of Notre-Dame bridges represented a grandiose extended construction which was quite often used for original parades during holidays. Local residents even named it Triumphal. However after one of celebratory actions during which the construction collapsed and killed lots of inhabitants of the capital, the main Parisian architect was ordered to design and erect the second bridge. This expert Fra Giovanni Giocondo constructed the new bridge from stone, it had in twenty four meters’ width and hundred twenty four meter’s length.

As we already marked, the French bridges of that time were high-grade inhabited and business streets. The same corresponded to the new bridge with numerous little shops owners of which lived on the top floors of the same buildings where they had shops. Besides, under the decision of the architects, all show-windows of shops on the new bridge had identical size.

In shops of local dealers there was a brisk trade in the goods for all tastes. Here it was always possible to find food, clothes, weapons, works of painting, products of jewelers and perfumers, medicine, in general, everything that could be necessary for local residents. Parisians with pleasure visited the bridge in hope to buy the necessary goods. For example, here was located the tiny boutique of the marchand-mercier Edme-François Gersaint – an art gallery which was so popular that in its memory it was decided to immortalise the special memorable tablet which said “The Signboard of Gersaint”.

As well as the old, the new Pont Notre-Dame was the place for celebratory walks and processions. So, in 1531 the future wife of the king of France François I has driven through it to Paris.

The following repair of the new Pont Notre-Dame has been carried out in 1660 before the wedding celebrations of the queen Maria Theresa of Spain and the well-known king Louis XIV.

Exactly after hundred years all inhabited and trading constructions have been taken down from the bridge, and it began to carry out its direct duties: transport moving and pedestrians walking easy.

Pont Notre-Dame remains this way up to this day, and being in the city on the Seine visit this beautiful historical place.

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Restaurant Les Ombres — romantic flight over Paris

25 June 2010 No comments Share/Save

Les OmbresIt is possible to speak and write about Paris infinitely, it is so great, inimitable and various. We won’t stop bringing new materials to your attention.  This time our choice has fallen on a remarkable restaurant Les Ombres.

It is difficult to judge but if to trust the opinion of Parisians it is necessary to call the given restaurant the most popular Parisian institution for today. And, being in Paris, you will see the proof of correctness of local residents by having visited always filled halls of Les Ombres. Every night hundreds of pleasant rest judges from Paris and city visitors gather here.

We should say that Les Ombres has more than enough reasons for popularity.

First, the institution is on a roof of the well-known Museum of civilizations of antiquity Quai Branly which has been designed by the well-known French architect Jean Nouvel (for those who don’t remember, this person is the owner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize).

The tourists who have visited this place say that the optimal time for restaurant visiting is an evening after you already take pleasure in viewing the works of art in the halls of the museum located lower. Without the slightest exaggeration we notice that Les Ombres will amaze you both with its culinary masterpieces, and simply amazing view opening before the visitors. To tell the truth, even glamorous Georges (a restaurant located on the roof of the Center of George Pompidou we already told in one of our previous articles) remains a bit behind.

The interior of the restaurant is extremely elegant and at the same time underlined laconic. The basic element of the interior is the decorative grid perfectly well combined with glass walls, looking through which, the well-known Tour Eiffel is represented to your eyes on distance of several meters. Sitting at a little table of this restaurant the bright fires of Paris at night and ships on the Seine will seem to you small glowworms before your eyes. The romanticism and restaurant atmosphere will amaze you already at the entrance and will continue to rejoice throughout all evening.

The head cook of Les Ombres is the pupil of the well-known master Joel Rebushon. This culinary specialist cooks for all visitors alone, therefore you shouldn’t expect excessively original appearance from the dishes, but their taste is simply magic. Alongside with many known Parisian restaurants the service at Les Ombres is not refined; it attracts visitors with the surroundings, spirit and a magnificent view on Paris. Don’t doubt that having spent a hundred Euros for a supper here; the impressions will remain in your memory for long years.

  • On the map you will find Les Ombres at: 27 quai Branly, Paris.

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Paris Museum Pass — your admission card to any museum of Paris

12 June 2010 No comments Share/Save

Paris Museum Pass Paris… The Beauty presented by France, is no longer far and inaccessible to inhabitants of our country and all its sights can be seen easily for rather small sum of money.

Not always money is capable to give what it would be desirable. Similar situations are actual staying in the French capital. Coming to this wonderful European city, many thousands of tourists from every corner of the globe aspire to visit the greatest possible quantity of remarkable Parisian places during very short time. Thus they quite often create rather big lines and “corks” that please nobody.

Nowadays in Paris there are some hundreds of the most interesting museums which are the strongest magnet drawing travelers from different corners of our planet at any time of year.  And if it is almost always  possible to come into the Parisian wax museum freely,  to admire expositions of the Louvre or D’Orsay it is necessary to spend in a long line, you will have to suffer, after all these are the cult sights of Paris and  masterpieces of world art.

But the solution to this problem is already found. Paris Museum Pass is your admission card to the world of museums of Paris. The given subscription extends on all museums of the capital of France. It is some kind of a “ticket” having which on hands gives  the person a release from necessity to stand idle in a huge line as for owners of Paris Museum Pass there are separate “entrance corridors” (like “a green” corridor on borders).

Thanks to this museum card you save your time and can visit much more of the most interesting museum expositions. In Paris it is really a lot from what to choose. Louvre, D’Orsay, Montparnasse museum, Picasso’s museum, le Invalides, George Pompidou’s Center and many other things.

The advantage of Paris Museum Pass besides possibility of visiting all museums of Paris without staying in lines is that you can get a card for certain number of days. The Parisian museum cards are now accessible for two, four and six days.

Certainly, it is difficult to visit in this time all museums of the city, but anyway, having bought this card, you will save on tickets, and keep the precious minutes of stay in this magic city, the name to which is Paris.

Site of Paris Museum Pass: www.parismuseumpass.com

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The Parisian Opera. A way from the eternal lodger to a magnificent palace …

15 May 2010 No comments Share/Save

The Parisian Opera. A way from the eternal lodger to a magnificent palace …The history of Paris is interesting and many-sided, huge number of every possible event which for almost any other city of the world would suffice on one million years has intertwined in it. In the materials we have told much about the Parisian sights symbolizing this or that period of history of the city and France as a whole. Today we would like to pay attention to such important phenomenon for Paris as opera and to its main modern symbol to the theatre “Opéra Garnier”. We’ll give it one after another.

According to numerous researchers of art history opera as a musical genre, has appeared in 1600th when the composer from an Italian Florence Jacopo Peri showed to the world opera “Euridice”, dedicated to the wedding of the French monarch Louis XIV and the well-known Maria Medici. And during this king opera got the status of an independent art form.

As memoirs contemporaries of this king testify, he was the aficionado of everything that concerned music he himself being quite a good dancer, took active part in ballet performances. Music accompanied Louis practically everywhere during his reign. And in royal residence musical balls were organized almost each day.

Year of 1669 was marked by opera and ballet inclusion in the French musical academy, and such concepts as “power” and “opera” became henceforth and inseparable at all. Musicians not only participated in regular representations, but also (strangely enough it can sound) have been got quite often mixed up in various political intrigues which always took place in the royal environment. And the first-ever opera and ballet theatre has been created at the French court yard in Versailles in boxes of which serious people were engaged in the decision of the important state problems.

But the Parisian opera, despite of such an exclusive position, had one big problem. For more than two centuries of the existence in view of the different reasons it has changed some tens of concert halls. Thus all of them were far from conformity to the status of the most opera theatre.

And only with Napoleon’s III – who have solved radically to change appearance of all Paris – coming to power, the opera had a chance to receive a due theatre.

The responsible for city building has been appointed Baron Haussmann who is well-known nowadays; he did not recognize any rules and made everything he considered necessary in Paris. The city was transformed beyond recognition for some decades. For good or for bad – we are not to judge, we will notice only that fact that now the French capital is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities of the world.

However, we will return to the opera. Among hundreds applicants for the role of the architect of the Parisian opera the young man by the name of Charles Garnier on whom the choice of baron Haussmann has fallen has appeared the most successful. Many historians believe that the reason for this was the precise understanding of the architect of trends of that time when everyone dreamt of “glamour”, “luxury” and “shine”.

In theatre premises styles of various epochs were guessed; owing to that uniformity, cleanliness and unity of lines was not observed here absolutely, but it did not affect the general magnificence of the whole image. Later the art experts named the given mixture by big enough words – the style of the Second Empire.

The opening of “Grand Opéra Garnier” has taken place in 1875 when neither Napoleon nor baron Haussmann were in live however despite of everything their child could be born. In that significant day the Parisian Opera (here we speak about it as about an independent theatre) has received the first extremely magnificent house which remains it till today.

We are not going to describe the internal magnificence which homes “Grand Opéra Garnier”, we simply advise you to visit this place personally and to receive unique impressions.

The well-known theatre is to be found at the address: Place de l’Opera

8 rue Scribe Paris 75009.

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Some words about the Parisian bridges

3 May 2010 No comments Share/Save

Some words about the Parisian bridgesOn our site you could find a lot of information on various sights of Paris, and we sincerely hope that our articles are interesting for you to read. This time we bring to your attention a short description of the Parisian bridges which you can come across being in this magnificent city.

As all of us know, Paris (as a settlement) conducts its history from iÎle de la Cité located between river banks of the Seine. Today the island represents only insignificant part of the city and long time ago it was the whole Paris, which, during those old times was not called this name.

As well as to many other settlements located on the rivers, Paris required special crossings for communication of the city with river banks. So here there were initially wooden bridges which were later replaced with the stone ones that subsequently have come to the present streets over water.

According to historical data for the first time benches of local handicraftsmen have appeared on Pont Notre-Dame in the fifteenth century and as these trading places always settled down together with workshops and habitation of masters thus on the bridge the present inhabited street which has very quickly turned to the centre of the Parisian trade was formed. Nothing changed here for a long time, however in 1786 according to the decree of the king all constructions have been operatively cleaned from the bridge.

If you happen to be in Paris necessarily visit Pont Neuf (the New Bridge). Don’t think that it is the newest bridge in Paris as actually it is one of the oldest of the remained bridges of the city. In due time it was really the newest, for as it has received such a name. The New Bridge has been constructed in the far sixteenth century for traffic unloading on Pont Notre-Dame and Pont au Change. It was a unique Parisian bridge of that time on which there were no inhabited, craft and trading constructions that caused serious discontent in numerous shopkeepers.

As well as many other Pont au Change has initially been executed from wood and only in the middle of the seventeenth century has been replaced with a stone construction with numerous apartment houses and benches of exchangers (therefore it has received the corresponding name).

Do not deprive of the attention the foot Pont des Arts which has been constructed at the very beginning of the nineteenth century by the order of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and became the first Parisian bridge made of iron. The bridge has received its name because it connects the French Academy and the Louvre which at that time carried the name of the Palace of arts.

Among the Parisian bridges there is one connected to Russia. Pont Alexandre III is named in honor of the Russian tsar and is constructed, as a tribute to signing of the contract on a military alliance between Russia and France. It is one of the most beautiful bridges in Paris so you should necessarily find time for visiting it.

We would like to finish our narration about the Parisian bridges with the Bridge of Revolution which has received its name most likely because it has been constructed of remains of stone walls of the well-known French prison la Bastille. Today the construction names the Bridge of the Consent and connects the Parisian square with the same name and Palais Bourbon.

There are thirty eight bridges in total in the city boundaries now, each of which has the history and can cause a great interest in tourists.

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Expanding our Parisian routes

18 April 2010 No comments Share/Save

Expanding our Parisian routesClassical Parisian sights are good of course. And we recommend everyone to visit them, especially to those who come to this city for the first time as to arrive to Paris and not to see Tour Eiffel or the Louvre will be a crime. However, believe that there is still a set of interesting in Paris that is not specified in each tourist guidebook. It is possible to visit such places which actually allow to like the Parisian spirit without pathos of the official sights. In this small narration we wish to tell you about such places of the French capital.

Certainly, many of you would like to visit not only Paris, but to appear in other interesting places of France. Unfortunately in reality it is not obviously possible, but it is possible to admire this country in a miniature. In the big territory near Paris there is a park called “France in a miniature” where small copies of all more or less significant French sights are collected. Here before your look will appear Loire castles, and jam-packed Stade de France, Alpine mountain tops, the Louvre, Notre Dam de Paris and hundred other exhibits. This exposition works from April till November, and it is possible to reach it from Paris for some ten minutes on an electric train to station Saint Quentin en Yvelines.

There is a most interesting Aquaboulevard (this name of a local aquapark) in Paris; it is divided into two parts. One of them is open-air; another is closed from the external world. Here each visitor will find out a great number of every possible pool, fountains, a Jacuzzi and hills (from the most usual to “terrible enough “). Each fifteen minutes the signal warns that it is “tsunami” – time to prepare for waves in pools. In this park a restaurant, a cinema hall, sports shop, the fitness centre work for visitors. The aquapark address: Rue Louis Armand 4.

For some reason the most favorite by Parisians Parc Monceau is very rarely attended by foreign visitors. This is the place where in a considerable quantity local residents gather for family and friendly picnics with cheese and wine, here they play popular in this country game Pétanque. The big romanticism is given to park by artificial rocks and falls. Amateurs of architecture can admire aristocratic houses surrounding the park. It is possible to reach park by the underground, station Monceau.

Having appeared on Montmartre, do not miss possibility to visit cabaret Lapin Agile (Rue des Saules 22) which was in due time rather popular with local poets and artists. There a certain strange sensation of times of sesquicentennial prescription to this day has remained. Probably a bohemian cemetery being nearby promotes it.

In London there is a well-known museum of Madame Tussauds, and Paris can brag of the museum of wax sculptures Grevin which is the most expensive Parisian museum at present also on Montmartre. Certainly, this museum concedes to the English competitor, but in any case visiting it is worth it. Believe, surprises are waiting for you here. To take for instance the mimes who represent statues from themselves and at a given time can tell “greetings” to you. A lot of endurance is required not to be frightened of such harmless greeting.

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Dirty tricks of Paris. Advises to beginning tourists

6 April 2010 No comments Share/Save

Dirty tricks of Paris. Advises to beginning touristsOn our site we have already given you historical inquiries, told you much about many Parisian sights, appeal of this or that place. Today it would be desirable to tell about some behavioral stereotypes and norms which need to be followed while visiting Paris because not always the standard behavior of the tourist pleases associates.

The main city of France is a very popular tourist centre; therefore it is always possible to observe crowds of idle people with cameras, staring with curiosity.

Let’s begin with the Louvre – the most known museum of France – which is visited every day by twenty five thousand Parisians and city visitors. The most well-known exhibit of the museum is the great Leonardo da Vinci’s creation of “Mona Liza” (“La Joconde”) and consequently to admire this masterpiece to aspire almost each visitor. But, for God’s sake, do not crowd near the picture as it is not as big as it can seem, and one person is in a condition to block the review of another. Instead go on survey of remained 35 thousand exhibits among which you will necessarily find something interesting for itself.

Some tourists go to the Seine cruise that is, undoubtedly, pleasant pastime as its cost is not so high (about 12 Euros). However, there is a dirty trick which is connected with the meal onboard the steam-ship. The order of a dinner during cruise can increase the price of your excursion to hundred Euros. Believe, you can have a better meal at a good restaurant much more cheaply.

Tour Eiffel. Each “decent” tourist burns with the desire to climb up this grandiose construction to look downwards from height of the bird’s flight. However, as a rule, tower visiting is nothing more than hassle in a long line to the lift and time expenditure. Many tourists were convinced for a long time already that from within this miracle of the world does not look as attractively as it can seem. And if you by all means wish to admire panorama of Paris it is better to make it from Montparnasse.

Visiting La Bastille. One more Parisian myth. As it is known, this well-known prison has been destroyed a long time ago, and today on its place there is a transport crossroad with the memorable tablet, – nothing more.

Skilled tourists insistently do not recommend visiting the well-known Parisian cafes for the sake of a coffee cup (kind of Café de Flore) as owners of such institutions, becoming a victim of some kind of “star fever”, establish astronomical prices. Don’t be too lazy and walk some ten meters and order an excellent coffee in a less PR-ed place.

The airports. When you order a tour to Paris, or simply buying a plane ticket, do not choose the arrival terminal Beauvais which is ninety kilometers from the city and to reach it will cost a decent sum of money. The airport de Gaulle or Aéroport d’Orly – that is what you need!

Probably, visiting Paris you would face other situations which is better to avoid, therefore we sincerely hope that our advises will appear useful.

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